Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Walker piloted the X-15 to an altitude of 107.96 km and remained weightless for approximately five minutes. The altitude was the highest crewed flight by a spaceplane to that time, and remained the record until the 1981 flight of Space Shuttle Columbia. Walker landed the X-15 about 12 minutes after it was launched, at Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards ...
Twelve pilots flew the X-15 over the course of its career. Scott Crossfield and William Dana flew the X-15 on its first and last free flights, respectively. Joseph Walker set the program's top two altitude records on its 90th and 91st free flights (347,800 and 354,200 feet, respectively), becoming the only pilot to fly past the Kármán line, the 100 kilometer, FAI-recognized boundary of outer ...
The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft.
After Flight 188, 11 more X-15 flights were made before the program was retired. The X-15 program data was used in the planning of future aircraft and spacecraft designs. Flight 188 held the crewed winged spaceplane speed record till it was passed by STS-1 of the Space Shuttle Columbia on April 14, 1981. Flight 188 is still a speed record for a ...
Walker would go on to fly the X-15 25 times, [2] including the first flight of a human into the mesosphere, Flight 35, and the only two flights that exceeded 100 kilometres (62 miles) in altitude, Flight 90 (on July 19, 1963: 106 km (66 mi)) and Flight 91 (on August 22, 1963: 108 km (67 mi)).
Robert Michael White (July 6, 1924 – March 17, 2010) (Maj Gen, USAF) [2] was an American electrical engineer, test pilot, fighter pilot, and astronaut. [3] [4] He was one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the Air Force and NASA.
X-15 Flight 90 pilot, Joe Walker Flight 90 of the North American X-15 was a research flight conducted by NASA and the US Air Force on July 19, 1963. It was the first of two X-15 missions that passed the 100-km high Kármán line , the FAI definition of space , along with Flight 91 the next month.
The highest altitude obtained by an electrically powered aircraft is 29.524 kilometres (96,863 ft) on August 14, 2001, by the NASA Helios, and is the highest altitude in horizontal flight by a winged aircraft. This is also the altitude record for propeller driven aircraft, FAI class U (Experimental / New Technologies), and FAI class U-1.d ...